WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Thursday he is in “no rush” to reach any trade deals because of the revenues his tariffs are generating, but he suggested while meeting with Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni that it would be easy to find an agreement with the European Union and others.

Trump played down the likelihood of an accelerated timeline to wrap up deals, saying any agreements would come “at a certain point.”

“We’re in no rush,” said Trump, hinting he has leverage because other countries want access to U.S. consumers.

The president later said: “We have a lot of countries that want to make a deal. Frankly, they want to make deals more than I do.”

Meloni’s meeting with Trump was a test of her mettle as a bridge between the EU and the United States. She was the first European leader to have face-to-face talks with Trump since he announced and then partially suspended 20% tariffs on European exports.

Meloni secured the meeting as Italy’s leader, but she also has, in a sense, been “knighted” to represent the EU at a critical juncture in the fast-evolving trade war that has stoked recession fears. The Trump administration has belittled its European counterparts for not doing enough on national security while threatening their economies with tariffs, sparking deep uncertainty about the future of the trans-Atlantic alliance.

She sought to portray the United States and Europe as natural allies in Western civilization and said it was important to “try to sit down and find solution” to tensions over trade and national security.

“The goal for me is to make the West great again,” Meloni told Trump.

The EU is defending what it calls “the most important commercial relationship in the world,” with annual trade with the U.S. totaling 1.6 trillion euros ($1.8 trillion). The Trump administration has said its tariffs would enable trade negotiations that would box out China, the world’s dominant manufacturer. But Trump maintains that rivals and allies alike have taken advantage of the U.S. on trade, while saying that “tariffs are making us rich.”

Trump tried to push back against claims that his tariffs are harming the economy, saying that gasoline and egg prices are already dropping. The president blamed the Federal Reserve for interest rates rising on U.S. debt. Rates largely increased because investors were worried about Trump’s tariff plans and they became less willing to buy Treasury notes, while the Fed has held steady on its own benchmark rates because of economic uncertainty.

“We have very little inflation,” Trump said. “I would say we have essentially no inflation.”

For European nations, trade negotiations fall under the authority of the EU Commission, which is pushing for a zero-for-zero tariff deal with Washington.

Administration officials, in talks with the EU, have yet to publicly relent on the president’s baseline 10% tariff. Trump paused for 90 days his initial 20% tax on EU products so that talks could occur.

The EU has already engaged with Trump administration officials in Washington. Maroš Šefčovič, the European Commissioner for trade and economic security, said he met on Monday with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer.